By Kjetil Malkenes Hovland
OSLO--Norway produced 15% less crude oil than estimated in
September and will likely produce less oil than the expected 1.6
million barrels per day in 2012, said the country's Petroleum
Directorate Wednesday.
Norway's crude oil production hit a peak in 2000 at 3.12 million
barrels per day, which was nearly halved to 1.68 million barrels
per day in 2011.
In September 2012, crude oil production was 1.243 million
barrels per day, compared with 1.498 million barrels per day in
August, preliminary numbers showed Wednesday.
The production fall in September was due to maintenance and
technical problems on several fields, the directorate said. The BP
PLC (BP) operated Valhall and Hod fields were shut down the entire
month of September to prepare the production start-up on a new
platform.
In addition, the Talisman Energy Inc. (TLM) operated Yme field
and the BP operated Skarv field were expected to contribute with
new production in September, but none of them will be in production
in 2012, the directorate said.
So far in 2012, Norway's oil production is about 2% below the
Norwegian Petroleum Directorate's estimate for full-year
production. The directorate said it may be challenging to achieve
the estimated production, because the estimate was quite high for
the remaining months of 2012.
In its annual production report for 2011, the directorate
estimated Norway's 2012 production of crude oil would reach 1.616
million barrels per day.
Norway's combined production of oil, natural gas liquids and
condensates was 1.514 million barrels per day in September, 318,000
barrels per day lower than in August, the directorate said. Natural
gas sales also fell in September, to 6.9 billion cubic meters, down
1.2 billion cubic meters from August.
Norway's combined oil and gas production peaked in 2004 at 4.54
million barrels of oil equivalent per day. By 2011, production had
fallen 16.7% to 3.8 million barrels per day.
Total petroleum production so far in 2012 is 1.06 billion
barrels of oil equivalent, 43 million barrels more than in the
year-earlier period. Crude oil's share of total production so far
in 2012 is 40.2%, the rest is gas, natural gas liquids and
condensates.
Write to Kjetil Malkenes Hovland at
kjetilmalkenes.hovland@dowjones.com
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